Grant: Operating Grant

About 1.5 million people in Canada are extremely obese and suffer many health problems and premature death as a result. These patients also frequently use health care services and incur large health care costs. Bariatric surgery is currently the best treatment available for extremely individuals. Surgery reduces weight over 10 years by nearly 20%, reduces the risk of death by about 25%, improves quality of life, and substantially improves the medical problems that arise from obesity. However, access to surgery is very limited in Canada and other public health systems - less than 1% of people eligible for surgery actually receive it in Canada and wait times average 5 years. There is currently no system of to determine whether certain individuals should be given higher priority (also known as triaging) to undergo surgery. The objective of this study is to identify factors that predict a higher chance of obesity-related health problems or death. Another objective is to assess how patients feel about triaging for surgery. A final objective is to examine if operating on certain types of patients will minimize costs for the system overall. These factors can then be used by health care providers and administrators to help determine if certain patients should receive surgery ahead of others. This information will be immediately used to help streamline access to surgery within the Edmonton Weight Wise program, a large regional obesity program that includes one of Canada's largest surgical programs (100+ operations per year). It should also be useful to any publicly funded obesity program in Canada or elsewhere in the world.